The Next Web

Monumental has raised a $32m Series B led by Khosla Ventures, money it will spend putting more of its bricklaying robots on building sites in Britain and, for the first time, in the United States. Plural and Hummingbird, both backers of the company’s $25m round in early 2024, took part again. The Am

Alibaba stock jumps 4% after Qwen is approved to run Apple Intelligence in China

Alibaba confirmed on Wednesday that its Qwen AI model will be integrated into Apple Intelligence across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS for users in China. “Qwen will be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences,” an Alibaba spokesperson told CNBC. China’s Cyberspace Administration included Ap

Velocity raises $38M to move business money with stablecoins

London fintech Velocity has raised a $38 million Series A to help businesses move money with stablecoins. The Velocity Series A, led by Dragonfly and FirstMark, brings the two-year-old company’s total funding to nearly $50 million. Velocity builds treasury and settlement infrastructure for companies

Publishers sue Google over Gemini AI training

A group of major book publishers and the author Scott Turow have sued Google, claiming it used millions of copyrighted books to train its Gemini AI without permission. The Google Gemini lawsuit calls it “one of the most prolific infringements of copyrighted materials in history.” The plaintiffs file

Zipline is launching healthcare drone delivery with Cleveland Clinic. It hired Tesla and Waymo veterans to scale.

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Zipline said the number of businesses offering delivery through its app grew 13 times during the first half of 2026. The autonomous drone delivery company has now completed more than 2.5 million commercial deliveries, including one million in the last year alone, and says it operates more flights pe

India pledges $20 billion to boost chips and smartphones as Modi pushes for an Indian mobile brand

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India pledged 1.9 trillion rupees ($19.7 billion) in combined incentives for domestic chip and smartphone production on Wednesday. The cabinet approved 1.28 trillion rupees ($13.3 billion) for semiconductors, covering chip design, machine fabrication, research and development, and talent creation, a

Abu Dhabi already runs its government on AI

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While the West argues over how to regulate AI, Abu Dhabi has quietly built an AI-native government. In the UAE capital, a single app already renews your ID, books your doctor, and pays your parking fine, sometimes before you ask. Most governments are still drafting their first AI strategy. Abu Dhabi

Lucid shares plunged 40% on a bankruptcy rumour from an EV blog. The denial came hours later.

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Lucid Motors stock fell more than 40% at one point on Tuesday and was halted for volatility multiple times after an EV-focused publication reported the company was considering going private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The stock recovered some losses and closed down 16% at $4.62 a

Doubao’s AI companions are gone. Users get 3 months to screenshot what is left.

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The notice read like housekeeping. Take screenshots while you still can, ByteDance told Doubao users, or export the text. On 15 July the custom agents they had built stopped working, and what is left is a read-only archive with a closing date attached: 15 October, after which the company says the da

Anthropic’s job ads read like a threat assessment

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A look at Anthropic safety hiring shows exactly what it fears: analysts brought in to stop its models teaching anyone how to build nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Most job ads sell a mission. Anthropic’s read like a threat assessment. The company has posted a run of openings for enforceme

6 biggest tech nightmares to avoid next time you travel abroad

Drop me on a Balinese coastline with a decent paperback and my smartphone, and I’ll luxuriate for two weeks straight. But fly me out to the same spot with a Nokia 3310 and a physical map, like the one my dad used to carry, and I’ll probably have a nervous breakdown. Most of us can agree that we’re h

Meet the finalists of the TNW València startup pitch battle

Some of Europe’s hottest startups arrived at TNW València last week to develop ideas, expand networks, create new leads, and — and most importantly of all — fight. Not in the physical sense, of course, but in a fiercely-contested TNW València pitch battle. After surviving a series of fiery knockout

TNW València has arrived! Here are some highlights from Day 1

TNW València is finally here! Founders, investors, business leaders, and tech enthusiasts descended on València’s marina this morning to discover the next in tech, now. Before long, the venue — nestled between the historic inner city and the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean — was bustling w

Stockholm is a world-class tech hub: 6 startups and scaleups to watch

Once predominantly known for IKEA, Ericsson, and Volvo, in the past decade, Sweden has emerged as one the most valued tech ecosystems in Europe, with Stockholm ranking as the fifth top performer in 2021. The success of Swedish startups such as Tink and Spotify has turned the capital city into a worl

Opinion: The AI pope coat is the shape of hyperreality to come

By now, you’ll have seen it. Pope Francis walks across the frame, his focus on the mid-distance. He’s brightly lit as though it’s early morning. A silver cross hangs from his neck, dangling over his snow-white, Balenciaga-inspired puffer jacket. It’s the baller bishop, the steezy father, his holy dr

Why third-party app stores are good for Apple’s users — and the company

With the passage of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) in 2022, online platforms, including Apple, with EU revenues of 75 billion euros or more and at least 45 million active monthly end users must open up their devices to third party app stores. The DMA aims to end unfair practices by l

Award-winning economist has tapped AI to close the gender equity gap

The gender equity gap in the tech sector is well-documented. Research has found that women occupy only 22% of all tech roles across European companies, while the proportion of funding raised by female-only teams has dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018. The issue is prevalent at every level of the indus

3 things you can do to stand out in a job interview

Congratulations! You’ve just landed an interview for a position you really want… although now comes the hard part. Generally considered to be the most daunting stage of the entire job hunt, the interview experience can be overwhelming, nerve-wracking and wholly unpleasant, quite frankly, especially

Swedish startup takes commuting by boat to new heights — literally

Is it a boat or is it a plane? Put your glasses on! This is clearly an electrically-powered hydrofoil passenger ferry. The brainchild of Swedish startup Candela, the P-12 Shuttle is set to become the fastest and longest-range electric passenger vessel in the world when it launches this summer. Fou

How an outsider’s freedom can make a successful startup founder

Building a startup in a sector you’ve never worked in might seem a risky move, but it can actually provide a competitive advantage. That’s certainly proven true for Vivino. Founded in 2010 in Copenhagen, the scaleup has raised $221 million in funding, and become the world’s most downloaded wine app

The world’s first self-driving bus fleet will soon hit Scotland’s streets

Next time you board a bus in Scotland and it’s driving itself, don’t freak out — this is all part of a government plan to bring self-driving tech into the mainstream. Five fully autonomous buses will be taking to the streets near Edinburgh next month, announced Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and c

Digital twins could save your life. Here’s how

Digital twins — virtual replicas of real-world things — are already commonplace in manufacturing, industry, and aerospace. There are highly complex digital models of cities, ports, and power stations — but what about people? The idea of digital doppelgängers has long been confined to the realm of s

TNW València 2023 was a blast — here are our favourite moments

For 16 memorable years, TNW Conference has been at the center of Amsterdam’s tech ecosystem, but on March 30 and 31, TNW València brought — for the very first time — the heart of tech to Spain’s east coast. But we didn’t choose Valencia simply for its bright blue sea, delicious paellas, or sunny wea

Mammoth meatball beef exposes foodtech’s patent problem

A bitter feud has erupted over who first resurrected the woolly mammoth — as a meatball. The de-extinct delicacy was unveiled last week at Nemo Science Museum in the Netherlands. Naturally, no mammoths were harmed in the making of this product — and nor were any other animals. In lieu of dead flesh,

Everything you need to know about building a career in the gaming industry